4 cases of cholera reported in Mariupol

On May 29 in Mariupol three local inhabitants, two men born in 1946 and 1956, and a woman born in 1921, fell ill with cholera.

All of them were taken to the infectious diseases unit of the local hospital No. 4 where they are undergoing treatment and are under 24-hour medical surveillance.

According to the official information given by the Mariupol sanitary-and-epidemiologic station, two of those people accidentally ate fish of doubtful provenance, notably bullheads caught in the Azov Sea. The third contaminated person is sure that he caught the cholera bacillus while swimming in the sea. When he was at the beach he accidentally fell down and swallowed some water.

The Mariupol sanitary-and-epidemiologic station chief physician Heorhii Husakov assures that anti-epidemic measures have been taken and are being carried out in a timely and comprehensive manner.

Owing to the efficient actions of the sanitary-and-epidemiologic station workers it will be possible to stop the contagion shortly.

Municipal services have set up a situation center aimed at controlling the cases of cholera. All the people with acute enteric infections are taken to local infectious diseases units and examined. Currently the workers of the sanitary-and-epidemiologic station are testing the sea, waste water and fish in order to obtain a reliable picture of the incident.

Of course, public health services are trying to avoid a panic. Actually, there’s no panic in Mariupol at all. Most of the local inhabitants don’t even know about the incident despite the efficient work of the media. A public survey held in Mariupol’s streets proved it. Six people out of ten don’t know about the virus in Mariupol. “I heard nothing about it,” replied one of the surprised interviewees Iryna, “though I often watch TV. I know that this is an infectious disease that is mostly provoked by people’s untidiness. They complain about foods of poor quality, but everything is much simpler. They come home and sit down at the table instead of washing their hands and think that it’s OK. It’s their fault.”